Obviously, it wasn't just Cynthia who was shocked by this ga's price—the viewers in her stream were completely losing it too, flooding the chat:
[5,922 yen?? This little pixel ga that's barely a few hundred MB - how much content could it possibly have? And they dare charge 5,922 yen??]
[The ga creator is so generous - he could have just robbed us directly, but instead he went to the trouble of making a ga to give us too]
[Even Angry Rocks only dares charge 2,036 yen, and Battle Road season passes are just 3,084 yen. What gives this ga the right to cost so much?]
[I bet they're using that 2m yen prize as clickbait to make a quick buck, then disappear. Pixel ga plus this kind of description... wouldn't be the first ti.]
The viewers had no idea about Cynthia's thoughts regarding the Rayquaza cover and the ga creator.
To them, this was just an outrageously overpriced cash grab, so naturally, they started tearing it apart.
After all, what good ga costs 5,922 yen?
But the next mont, under everyone's gaze, Cynthia pressed the purchase button and chose to pay.
Chat went dead silent.
A few seconds later, it exploded again, question marks flying across the screen.
[???]
[Stay calm!! Honey!! I can afford this money, but you can't spend it like this!!]
[Holy crap, 5,922 yen without even blinking?]
[Boss has lost her mind!]
Facing these comnts, Cynthia quickly explained.
"Don't worry, everyone, I'm interested precisely because this ga is priced so high."
"If the content isn't good, as a ga tester, I can get a full refund."
"Don't worry. Based on what it says, this is a ga about Pokémon battles. If I actually manage to clear it, there's even a hundred thousand yen prize to win."
With Cynthia's explanation, chat started to understand a bit better.
[Makes sense. If they dare post that description on the official Alliance website, once soone clears it, if they don't pay out that 2m yen, the creator's going to jail.]
[Hahaha, the creator probably thought they'd make a quick buck and run, making the ga super hard, but they never imagined the first person to play their ga would be Sinnoh's Champion!]
[Right, right, and Cynthia is the Alliance's designated professional ga tester. If she's unsatisfied with the ga, she can request a refund anyti.]
[LMAO, so this person's ga just sold one copy and now they're gonna lose a hundred grand]
[Guy above, it's losing 2,050,534 yen. Be precise.]
Seeing chat calm down and get playful, Cynthia felt relieved.
She definitely couldn't talk about the ga cover information or her real hidden purpose.
Information about the top-tier "legendary Pokémon" was classified and couldn't be casually shared with ordinary citizens, or it might cause panic or other issues.
So she needed a reasonable explanation for buying the ga.
Plus, when she saw that price, sohow a thought suddenly occurred to her...
*Maybe creating a ga like this really is worth that much?*
Soone who understood the legendary Pokémon "Rayquaza" couldn't possibly be ordinary. Would they really make a cheap cash-grab ga?
Besides, 5,922 yen really wasn't much for her.
So what was the real situation? She'd find out by trying it.
Anyway, being the first to clear the ga and get the creator's contact info was her real goal.
With that thought, Cynthia took a deep breath and, under her viewers' watchful eyes, clicked the ga download button.
The biggest advantage of pixel gas was their small file size. Within seconds, a crisp "ding" sounded and an erald icon appeared on Cynthia's desktop.
As she clicked with her mouse, a window imdiately appeared.
After a black screen, a water droplet fell from a verdant leaf, accompanied by dynamic electronic music, dropping into a pond below and creating ripples.
The cara panned up. Under sunlight, across a vast grassland, a young man wearing a green bandana rode a bicycle, racing with the wind.
Countless Pokémon silhouettes appeared alongside him, keeping pace!
Running Manectric, flying Flygon, following Volbeat...
And one adorable Torchic, clumsily spreading its little claws as it charged forward. Not paying attention, it tumbled head over heels, then quickly scrambled up to keep running, as if afraid of being left behind.
The cara rose again, the screen burst with light, and imdiately after, the erald green ga logo appeared—
[Pocket Monsters: Erald]
This opening animation left even Cynthia stunned.
Six months ago, when the Alliance invited her to beco a special ga tester, she'd actually stread quite a few gas.
Pixel gas made up part of that proportion, and in her mory, these gas were characterized by crude, rough graphics that focused entirely on core gaplay.
After all, pixel gas had the lowest production costs - they were the top choice for studios and developers with ideas but no startup capital.
But correspondingly, their visual presentation would be very poor.
Yet now, just this opening animation completely overturned her understanding of pixel gas.
While it still had that familiar pixel feel, the visuals were incredibly polished, even having a three-dinsional quality, as if truly presenting itself before her eyes.
In this mont, just seeing this opening sequence, Cynthia imdiately made a judgnt.
This was definitely not just so shoddy cash-grab ga!
At the sa ti, viewers in the stream also realized sothing was off and started comnting:
[Holy shit? This is a pixel ga?]
[How does this visual feel and presentation seem so strong?]
[This music rhythm is amazing too, I feel brainwashed after hearing it once]
[Though it's way behind Battle Road's opening animation... this is already more polished than any other ga I've seen!]
[Uh oh, it might actually be worth 5,922 yen?]
Cynthia glanced at chat and shook her head slightly.
Just an animation like this definitely wasn't worth 5,922 yen.
She'd need to see the actual ga content to judge.
But her heart was actually starting to feel anticipation.
She took a deep breath and pressed the X key as prompted.
The logo disappeared, replaced by a prompt.
[Please enter your na]
Cynthia hesitated, then typed:
[Strawberry Ice Cream]
Of all sweets, ice cream was her favorite.
And strawberry was her preferred flavor.
On screen, another prompt appeared.
[Welco to the world of Pokémon, Strawberry Ice Cream.]
[An adventure filled with courage and friendship awaits you!]
[Never forget your original intentions - use bonds and passion to beco the strongest Pokémon trainer!]
Right then, chat flooded with comnts.
[She still loves ice cream so much, I'm crying.]
[Haha, if I said the strear is already the world's strongest trainer, how would you respond to that?]
But Cynthia, looking at those words, suddenly paused.
*Courage, friendship...*
*Bonds and passion...*
Sothing different seed to flicker in her eyes.
After a long mont, Cynthia took a deep breath and solemnly pressed the [Start] button.
Upon officially entering the ga, a little girl wearing a green cap representing her appeared on a moving truck.
Jumping down from the truck, "Mom" ca forward to explain the current situation - the player and family had moved to a new ho in a small town in the Hoenn region called Littleroot Town.
Today was also an important day when the player would receive their starter Pokémon and set out on their trainer journey.
As Cynthia played, Littleroot Town's exquisite architectural design again surprised and amazed her.
Though she'd never been to Littleroot Town in the Hoenn region.
The appearance of these surrounding buildings was exactly identical to the Hoenn regional features in her mory, completely consistent.
You could tell the creator had definitely researched materials carefully and compared them to real examples.
The swaying grass and trees in the wind, blooming flower details, and even the Pokémon accompanying the townspeople around town left Cynthia sowhat incredulous.
All of it was lifelike - though sowhat blurry, it was remarkably realistic.
Could a pixel ga really achieve this?
Next, as the plot advanced, after adjusting the clock at ho and eting a boy from the neighboring house, the boy asked Cynthia to call out his na.
She hadn't realized this would be her rival going forward. Being terrible at naming, she just called him "Black-Haired Boy," causing another round of laughter in chat.
[That's just how Cynthia is - without ice cream, she can't na anything.]
[Haha, seeing the Champion na things just like puts at ease.]
At the sa ti, discussions about the ga's core chanics appeared:
[So next is getting Pokémon, right? How's this pixel ga going to do Pokémon battle animations? Feels impossible to pull off.]
[Yeah, will they just skip battle animations? This ga's scenery is already worth seeing - treat it like going on a trip?]
[Shouldn't be. Didn't this ga's description say the difficulty was really high? Sothing about heart disease and cerebral hemorrhage not being their responsibility]
While chat discussed, Cynthia's character reached the forest entrance above the small town.
Cries for help ca from the distance - a Poochyena was chasing a professor in a lab coat around.
Cynthia looked at this professor's appearance and blinked.
Why did this professor seem familiar??
Wasn't this Professor Birch from the Hoenn region?
"Strawberry Ice Cream!! Perfect timing - there are Pokéballs in that bag over there, help out!"
A dialogue box popped up.
Chat imdiately burst into laughter.
[Holy crap, Professor Birch, is that you? Just a few days and you're this weak? A Poochyena can chase you around?!]
[The top research professor of the Hoenn region is asking Sinnoh's strongest Champion for help dealing with a Poochyena biting his butt - why am I having dreams like this]
[HAHAHAHAHAHA Strawberry Ice Cream, please help HAHAHAHAHAHA]
[Hey, you in front, your comnt is hurting my ears!]
At the sa ti, the Pokémon selection interface appeared before Cynthia.
Three Pokéballs, corresponding to—
A chick-like Fire-type Pokémon with orange down: Torchic.
A lizard-like Grass-type Pokémon with a twig in its mouth, cool and handso: Treecko.
And a Water-type Pokémon that looked honest and cute: Mudkip.
These three Pokémon were the "starter trio" unique to the Hoenn region - popular starter Pokémon choices for new trainers in that area.
Looking at the three Pokémon's images, Cynthia began considering.
If this was a high-difficulty battle ga, then this starter Pokémon choice would naturally be crucial.
After all, she'd need to rely on this Pokémon to get through the early stages.
As Cynthia pondered, Chat was giving her advice.
[Pick Torchic! Torchic is so cute!]
[Mudkip is the GOAT, okay? Like my Swampert's pentagon warrior stats?]
[When can sothing 4x weak to Grass sit at the table? Here's a Grass Knot for you!]
[How about Treecko? I think Treecko's pretty well-rounded, and evolving into Sceptile is pretty strong too.]
Looking at chat and combining her own thoughts, she quickly made her final decision, choosing Treecko's Pokéball.
The reason for this choice was that she'd been sowhat interested in Treecko as a Pokémon before.
Now that she had a chance to experience it, that was pretty good.
Besides, Grass-type Pokémon should indeed have so early-ga advantages, with various recovery moves like Absorb and Leech Seed.
As cool ripples appeared on the screen, the ga instantly switched to battle view.
Stirring battle music imdiately began - boiling drumbeats and orchestral electronic harmonies that got your blood pumping!
Looking at the interface and options before her, Cynthia instantly understood this ga's battle system.
Turn-based.
Simply put, both sides took turns acting, with whoever was faster getting to move first.
For a pixel ga, this battle format did seem most appropriate.
While controlling Treecko to attack with "Pound," she spoke to her stream viewers:
"From what I can see so far, this ga is quite creative."
"But I haven't encountered a ga that uses turn-based Pokémon battles before, so I don't know how deep this ga's system goes in that regard."
Chat chid in with their opinions:
[Yeah, turn-based seems pretty decent]
[You move once, I move once - feels kind of boring though. Wouldn't that leave no room for skill, just whoever has a type advantage or higher level wins?]
[True, that does seem like an issue.]
[Polished graphics, great music, nice creativity, but the battle system is weak and boring - just number comparisons. Not as good as Battle Road. 4 out of 5 stars overall, assessnt complete.]
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